Don’t let the people of Egypt say, ‘The Lord brought the Israelites out of Egypt for an evil purpose. He planned to kill them in the mountains and destroy them from the earth.’ So stop being angry, and don’t destroy your people.
You are confused. You think the clay is equal to the potter. You think that an object can tell the one who made it, “You didn’t make me.” This is like a pot telling its maker, “You don’t know anything.”
“People of Jacob, remember these things! People of Israel, remember you are my servants. I made you, and you are my servants. So Israel, I will not forget you.
This is what the Lord says, who saved you, who formed you in your mother’s body: “I, the Lord, made everything, stretching out the skies by myself and spreading out the earth all alone.
This is what the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, and its Maker, says: “You ask me about what will happen. You question me about my children. You give me orders about what I have made.
“How terrible it will be for those who argue with the God who made them. They are like a piece of broken pottery among many pieces. The clay does not ask the potter, ‘What are you doing?’ The thing that is made doesn’t say to its maker, ‘You have no hands.’
All of your people will do what is right. They will receive the earth forever. They are the plant I have planted, the work of my own hands to show my greatness.
You are our father. Abraham doesn’t know we are his children, and Israel doesn’t recognize us. Lord, you are our father. You are called “the one who has always saved us.”
A child has been born to us; God has given a son to us. He will be responsible for leading the people. His name will be Wonderful Counselor, Powerful God, Father Who Lives Forever, Prince of Peace.
They will be crying as they come, but they will pray as I bring them back. I will lead those people by streams of water on an even road where they will not stumble. I am Israel’s father, and Israel is my firstborn son.
“But the number of the Israelites will become like the grains of sand of the sea, which no one can measure or count. They were called, ‘You are not my people,’ but later they will be called ‘children of the living God.’
We all have the same father; the same God made us. So why do people break their promises to each other and show no respect for the agreement our ancestors made with God?
So you are doing the things your own father did.” But they said, “We are not like children who never knew who their father was. God is our Father; he is the only Father we have.”